Finally Lottulodukku and Gulgulmaal win something, albeit on a cricket turf

What do Lottulodukku and Gulgulmaal—two evil fictional scientists bent on destroying the world with their manic ideas and gadgets—and Dinkan, the comic flying superhero mouse with a flowing red cape—have to do on a cricket turf, and that too in the final of a local tournament?

That is exactly what happened when over 50 regular local cricketers, split into eight teams, decided to get creative with team names for the seventh edition of their locally held tournament at a turf in the city on Sunday (November 30, 2025). While brainstorming ideas before the auction of players, Abhilash, who goes by the name Billu and one of the eight captains, wondered aloud mostly to amuse the rest, how about Mayavi?

That sparked a chain reaction. Abhilash’s team was named Mayavi, and soon the hunt was on for names of similar shades. That is when Saeed Muhammed, another captain, had his Eureka moment. “Why not name teams after popular comic heroes? Since it was an internal tournament with no outside teams, we had the freedom to try such funny ideas. So we went for it,” said Saeed, who named his team after Lottulodukku and Gulgulmaal.

That opened the floodgates to the point of even outnumbering the teams in contention. The challenge then was to filter them down to just eight popular comic characters for as many teams.

After much brainstorming, the remaining six teams chose: Dinkan and Sons, Soothran – the mischievous jackal, Luttappi – the silly little devil with horns who flies on a magical spear, Shikkari Shambu – the iconic hunter in a pith helmet that covers even his eyes, often catching animals by sheer luck, Vikraman – the ferocious yet often foolish robber in his legendary striped tee, and Jumban and Thumban – the comic detective and his dog.

Teams named after these fictional comic characters split into two pools and squared off in six matches, each five overs a side, in the day-long tournament. Much to the amusement of spectators, the team names became the bigger talking point than the games themselves.

While their devious plans never succeeded in the fictional tales, Lottulodukku and Gulgulmaal proved victorious on the cricket turf, with the team named after them lifting the trophy. Team captain Saeed was adjudged the best bowler and fielder, while their star batsman was declared the man of the tournament.